Meanwhile it seems the villains of the piece, Scripture Union Queensland, have already conceded defeat. They have spent the week trying to make political hay while the sunny spotlight is on them, by telling the world how very popular chaplains are. Either that, or they think the constitution is a popularity contest. Among their hilariously unsupported claims is that they have supposedly received 70,000 expressions of support. A quick check of the Twitter API shows that if this is true, only 1% of these supporters cared enough to Tweet about it:

The real popularity of SU QLD

The Tweet button for their #SaveOurChaplains effort appeared on their page straight after the completion of the procedure to register support. My friends Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck confirmed this to me after they signed up. 69,998.

Speaking of budgets, I’m interrupting this post at this point to remind you that Ron William’s High Court Challenge campaign ain’t cheap. It’s not fair for those of us who support secular education to expect one dad to carry this burden on his own. Ron genuinely needs our support. Please see your way to chipping in what you can. Thank you.

Still with me? Good. So the SUQers’ tens of thousands of supporters either don’t use Twitter, or they don’t exist. And fewer than 5,000 of their supporters have Liked their Facebook page. When I asked SU QLD for evidence to support their claim of 70,000 supporters, they told me the name of their software provider. This is like showing me a quill when I ask for evidence of the resurrection. Then they offered this photo:

Huh?

I’m not sure what that is supposed to be, but I think it’s supposed to be the ’20,000 letters of support’ they’ve ‘received’ in meatspace. Either all SU QLD’s supporters have the same garish taste in notepaper, or they have had their donations spent on mailing bales of paper to churches, so they can promptly mail it back, so Tim Mander can make up a big number. I do hope aliens weren’t watching.

It all seems rather silly, but then that seems to be a recurring theme with these guys, doesn’t it?

One thing’s for sure, the High Court Challenge won’t see the end of these ghouls’ deliberate targeting of children for indoctrination at school. Already the hope-bringing Scripture Union Queensland and their disciple-making allies ACCESS Ministries will be planning the best way to bleed tax money from states to pay for it. And the surest way to get money from politicians is to appear to represent an easily impressed bloc of voters. The bigger the better. So, just as a cat arches its back to appear bigger and ward off a threat, you can expect ever-so-impressive claims about how fantastic chaplains are in the coming months.

Fuck, I bet even God will support the National School Chaplaincy Program.